Album Review: Vomit The Soul - Cold
Reviewed by Daniel Phipps
12 years ago, Vomit the Soul treated the brutal death metal scene to an absolute masterpiece of brutality titled Apostles of Inexpression. The Italians had built an impressive catalogue of releases starting in 2003 with the bands studio debut Human Insanity and played major shows all over Europe. Vomit The Soul disbanded in 2011, and now 10 years on, founding members Maurizio “Ycio” Ordandigo (drums) & Max Santarelli (vocals and guitar) have reformed the band and brought in Stefano Rossi Ciucci of fellow Italian and Unique Leader artist Bloodtruth to take over bass duties. The result of this reformation is titled Cold. It is a 9 track offering which has the daunting task of needing to meet the expectations off the back of the afore mentioned Apostles of Inexpression record and a 10 year inactive period.
The first thing that really grabs my attention on Cold is the bass playing and its tone on the record. Vomit The Soul and their style of slamming death metal has a very tight powerful and brutal guitar sound. The bass by contrast has a very clear audible tone which punches through and gives a real extra dynamic to the records sound, the bass guitar is not here to be lost in the background, Stefano is here to make his presence known and be heard.
Cold delivers a huge slab of death metal, the 3 piece deliver a punishing display crammed full of powerful grooves combined with vicious blasting. The production is extremely thick allowing you to absorb everything that Vomit the Soul present to the listener with the deep low vocals topping off with an immense presence, Cold is here to take no prisoners, the intensity stays high through the entire record with Vomit The Soul refusing to take their foot off the pedal.
Vomit the Soul still have it, Cold is a superb display of brutal death metal. You will hear the slam tag added to this release and that’s not an incorrect description. However, what you have is far from a one directional album. Cold gives you the full scope of everything that is great about this style. If you’re not familiar with Vomit the Soul but are fans of the styles of bands like Dying Fetus, Pyrexia and Suffocation you will not regret giving Cold your time.
